The IPBES Global Assessment: Pathways to Action

Mary H Ruckelshaus; Stephen T Jackson; Harold A Mooney; Katharine L Jacobs; Karim-Aly S Kassam; Mary T K Arroyo; András Báldi; Ann M Bartuska; James Boyd; Lucas N Joppa; Anikó Kovács-Hostyánszki; Jill Petraglia Parsons; Robert J Scholes; Jason F Shogren; Zhiyun Ouyang

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.009

The IPBES Global Assessment: Pathways to Action

Trends Ecol Evol. 2020 May;35(5):407-414. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.009. Epub 2020 Feb 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Natural Capital Project, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address: mary.ruckelshaus@stanford.edu.
² US Geological Survey Southwest and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers, and University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁴ University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁵ Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
⁶ Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas and Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
⁷ Lendület Ecosystem Services Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary.
⁸ Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, USA.
⁹ Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA.
¹⁰ Ecological Society of America, Washington, DC, USA.
¹¹ Global Change Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
¹² Department of Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
¹³ State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.

PMID: 32294422
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.009

Abstract

The first Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found widespread, accelerating declines in Earth's biodiversity and associated benefits to people from nature. Addressing these trends will require science-based policy responses to reduce impacts, especially at national to local scales. Effective scaling of science-policy efforts, driven by global and national assessments, is a major challenge for turning assessment into action and will require unprecedented commitment by scientists to engage with communities of policy and practice. Fulfillment of science's social contract with society, and with nature, will require strong institutional support for scientists' participation in activities that transcend conventional research and publication.

Keywords: IPBES; biodiversity; ecosystem services; engagement; global assessment; science-policy processes.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Earth, Planet
Ecosystem*
Policy